Category Archives: Social Philosophy

C Rulon: Is a Nuclear War Inevitable?

But 65 years ago a quantum jump in warfare took place—the atomic bomb. Soon the nuclear genie was out of the bottle. More and more countries were eventually able to build or acquire nuclear weapons. North Korea and Pakistan. Soon Iran? There is even a nuclear black market that attracts terrorist groups. Yet, a full-scale nuclear war would destroy civilization and threaten life itself. Even a “limited” nuclear war could escalate into a full-scale one, as could a conventional war among the superpowers. At some point, if civilization is to flourish, loyalty to 200 individual nation-states must be enlarged to include a new over-rid­ing loyalty to humanity as a whole. But, can we do this? Does our brain carry within it the potential to peacefully resolve fundamental conflicts?

C Rulon: Nuclear War

In August, 1945, the United States exploded a sin­gle nuclear fission bomb over Hiro­shima and another over Nagasaki. Both cities were destroyed, 125,000 Japanese were kil­led outright, and within months another 100,000 had died from in­jur­ies and radioactive fallout. Yet, today, each of our Trident sub­marines has the firepower of about 200 Hiroshima bombs, or eight times the fire­power released in the entire six years of World War II!

Scant justice in our world, especially in Supreme Court Decisions.

The Constitution itself must constantly be interpreted and applied to changing conditions and challenges. This is the function of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
How have the courts performed? To the extent that one function of our constitutional government is to improve the prospects of justice for all citizens, how have our courts done in their work of interpreting and applying the constitution to changing conditions and social-political challenges?

C Rulon: The Christian Right, Atheists & Societal Dysfunction

Religious beliefs have led many Christians over the centuries to commit a long litany of what today would be considered horrendous crimes — from the slaughter of all women and children in enemy villages, to the Crusades and the Inquisition, to the Thirty Years War, to the burning of witches, heretics and Jews.
On the other hand, millions of non-theists live moral lives. Sweden (where only 20% believe in a personal god) has one-sixth the teen preg­nancy rate as we do. Its citizens also give ten times as much money per capita to help the world’s poor as do Americans.

C Rulon: Does teaching evolution spread immorality & godlessness?‏

Evolution is taught in science classes not because it’s part of some “atheist agenda”, but because it’s one of the most impor­tant and wide-reaching scientific discoveries in the history of civilization. Almost all scientists in the U.S. and throughout the world accept our 4 billion year biological evolution because the evidence is so strong. To teach biology without evolution would be like trying to teach English without grammar.

C Rulon: Abortion & fetal idolatry – Part 4 (Souls, science & evolution)

By Charles L. Rulon Emeritus, Life & Health Sciences Long Beach City College ([email protected]) Fetal idolatry and ensoulment Elevating tiny, mindless, senseless human em­br­yos and fetuses to a rever­ed exalted status is fetal idolatry according to Rev. John Swomley, Emeritus Professor of Social Ethics, St. Paul School of Theology.[1] Swomley writes that “Fetal idolatry is […]

C Rulon: Abortion & fetal idolatry – Part 2 (Human embryology)

Elevating human em­br­yos and fetuses to a rever­ed, exalted, even sacred status is fetal idolatry, according to Rev. John Swomley, Emeritus Professor of Social Ethics, St. Paul School of Theology.[1] Fetal idolaters have trans­formed a mindless, senseless fetus the size of my thumb into a kind of demigod—a help­less, innocent, unborn baby with awareness and feel­ings—a baby that is playfully suck­ing its thumb and only needs to grow—a conscious baby that will under­go excruciat­ing pain as it is torn apart in an abortion—a pre-born baby with the sacred, inalienable, self-evident, funda­mental right to life. Yet, the scientific reality is quite different.

C Rulon: Abortion and fetal idolatry – Part 1 (The birth of fetal worship & extremism)‏

Fetal idolatry is only able to thrive in religiously conservative, scientifically ignorant, patriarchal cultures with seriously flawed anti-rational educational systems. It has no place in any civilized, rational society that values the separation of church and state and values female equality. “Glamor­i­zing” and “personalizing” mindless, senseless human embryos has distracted us for decades from the fundamental question: Do we really want to live in a country that tries to force women to use their bodies against their will to incubate unwanted embryos

Does recognition of the burden of war require support of war policy?

We can reject or have serious doubts about the “cause” for which our people are sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan while sympathizing with families like that of Lt. General Kelly and feeling sadness over the loss of lives like that of his son, 2nd Lt. Robert M. Kelly, the lives of many other young servicemen and the tragedy that is brought on the people of those countries.